‘It Sounded So Unlike India’: Auditory Perception in ‘The Secret Garden’ by F. H. Burnett

Abstract

Children’s literature has traditionally employed images of different sensory modalities to make the experience of the main characters more accessible to young readers. We believe that auditory imagery is an integral part of the sensory imagery repertoire of any text written for children, and auditory perception in a literary text reflects the way of interaction between the characters and the world around them at various stages of their spiritual journey. Being a traditional coming-of-age novel, The Secret Garden by F. H. Burnett shows a specific connection between auditory imagery and the plot of the novel since it reveals the changes in the main heroine’s character and highlights her growing need to accept another point of view. Eventually, Mary Lennox, the main character of the novel, becomes ready to hear other people: her initial indifference towards the surrounding is gradually being replaced by her sincere wish to listen to the Yorkshire dialect, speak her native tongue, and believe in the curing effect of the word. With the change of the spatial imagery of the text (from British India in the first chapters to the restricted space of the garden in the Yorkshire estate Misselthwaite Manor in the second part of the book), the heroine’s inner growth becomes more obvious, and the foregrounding of the sensory imagery (including auditory) grows more vivid. The spiritual transformation experienced by Mary Lennox affects other characters of the story and even leads to overshadowing of her role at the end of the novel. From the perspective of auditory imagery, Burnett creates a circular structure, making her heroine go from a lack of audio perception – through unhackneyed auditory sketches and quotations from classic novels – to a total silencing of the main heroine at the end of the novel.